Chapter 303 - Giant Metal Doge

Afton continued through the test, tearing apart sentry turrets and butchering Night Stalkers as he went. Funnily enough, he even spotted a few Lobotomites fighting the Night Stalkers, having somehow broken into the test and been caught up in it.

Afton allowed them to kill each other before putting down the victor, afterwards collecting the next terminals data before moving to the second floor. The most notable thing about the whole thing is just how many forcefields were actually present.​​

Afton wasn't sure of their energy consumption but knew it had to be quite high, judging simply by their sheer durability... Even cuts from his Inversal axe and shots from his Anti-Material rifle did literally nothing.

He wondered if their uses weren't just limited to forcefields... Perhaps there was a way to decrease their size? He shakes his head, he'd be able to think more on that once this test was done.

The second floor wasn't all that different from the first, aside from the increased number of sentry turrets that he easily dispatched. The exit that'd been locked *clicked* open once he downloaded the last terminals files.

All in all, the test wasn't that bad... Less difficult than the Infiltration tests, he was fine killing things, but sneaking around proximity sensors? No thank you.

Once Afton left the test and entered into another lab-room, the intercoms chirped to life and Borous' voice began again.

"Loboto-... Mr Parker, you actually passed and reached the residential test, most of my colleagues didn't think you would... And yes, this is not a pre-recorded message, I apologise that you had to hear all that..." he says sheepishly.

Afton shrugs to himself and examines the room, taking great interest in the floating holographic depiction of the K9000... He sure the weapon had been designed here, but wondered if there were any better prototypes that he might find.

Regardless, he checks the terminal in the corner, but it only has vague information about the Y-17 Harnesses. Something about something dying while wearing one and the suit taking control, stealing a gun and starting to shoot everyone... Yep, sounds just like a horror story.

He heads into the hallway, walking past an observation window before having to backtrack to see if his eyes were still working... He wasn't sure if he'd had a micro-seizure or if what he just saw was really happening.

In the observation room Afton could see many Cyberdogs sitting on their hind legs with their tails wagging, all sitting uniformly while looking up at a projector that had a Vault Girl rubbing a dogs stomach... "If this is how these things are trained, I'll eat my shoes." he mutters, feeling like just this wouldn't be enough.

The intercom bursts to life again as he walks through the metal hallways, "Wasn't the residential test shut down for some reason?" Klein asks, his voice module not broadcasting his altered volume.

"Yes, Gabe proved too much of a handful so we just locked it all down... Perhaps feeding him psycho-laced dog food wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had..." Borous says.

"Good thing you replaced its legs with spare parts, that thing kept excreting on my lawn!" Klein states.

...

"All Gabe needed was a spritz to the NOSE to stop him doing that, how did I let you convince me CUTTING him apart and putting his brain in a bowl was a good idea!?" Borous says.

Afton raises a brow at the byplay while shooting a couple of Protectrons that seem to still be active around here. He passes through a couple workshops before eventually exiting back into the second-floor room where he'd initially entered the test.

Before he goes over to the terminal to activate the 'Residential Test' Afton spots a Holodisk on a nearby table that he hadn't seen before... He lifts the robotic scrap that was on top of it and reads the label it had... Cyberdog splice? Perhaps it's supposed to be used in the other experiment room where he'd created that human/robot abomination.

Shaking his head, he moves to the terminal and activates the 'Residential Cyberdog Guard Test', the sound of rooms moving behind the large metal doors immediately sounding out. It was enough for him to clench his teeth at the scraping sound that put him on edge...

Eventually, the grinding sound stopped, indicating that the test was accessible. Afton looks himself over to make sure he was ready before entering inside. Once he's through the door, he finds himself in a large cavern, there were a couple pre-war houses nearby, and the only thing illuminating the place was a large lamp hanging far above everything else.

Glancing around, he spots two huge dog bowls sitting outside a house, two large pipes hanging over them, presumably carrying food and water for 'Gabe'. Strangely, Afton still hadn't spotted the dog, something that should've been relatively easy consider it should be larger than most other Cyberdogs...

"It seems like Gabe buried the Sonic Emitter schematic... Bad dog!" Borous chides, but Afton still couldn't find the beast.

"Enemy detected... Above us!" Nyx exclaims, and Afton looks up just in time to see the huge head of Gabe looking down at him from the top of a building's roof.

Afton leaps out of the way just in time to avoid Gabe biting down on his previous position. The Cyberdogs vicious-looking metal teeth shredding apart a picket fence he'd accidentally caught instead.

Afton quickly backs away and is able to see Gabe's entire body... He looked like a regular Cyberdog, with the exception being that he was large than Afton. The dog was actually taller than him while still standing on all fours, add the fact that it'd been reinforced by cybernetics and had its mind altered by chems... Yeah, Afton wasn't really holding out much hope that he could spare this thing...

"Gabe! Don't attack the visitor! You remember what happened when you bit the mailman, don't you boy?" Borous continues trying to persuade Gabe, but that doesn't stop the dog from slowly stalking towards Afton.